Connecting to the Cloud Six Degrees Group www.6dg.co.uk
Managed Cloud Hosting Companies all over the world are intrigued by the possibility of cloud services but they have profound concerns about the privacy, security and sovereignty of their data. They understand that there is inherent tension between the dynamics of cloud and the realities of business: 1. Scalability versus Stability 2. Elasticity versus Predictability 3. Self-service versus Service-level 4. Anywhere versus Somewhere 5. Public versus Private 6. Unmanaged versus Managed Six Degrees Group believes that not all clouds are equal, that one size does not fit all, and that no cloud supplier can be all things to all people. Our managed cloud hosting solutions are designed to offer flexibility and choice to mid-market and corporate customers. We have architected our platforms to balance the above traits in a way that is right for our target markets by providing the options that modern enterprises demand.
The Hosting Stack We describe the value chain of the hosting industry using the stack below. Regardless of the actual configuration of the hosting service colocation, cloud managed services, virtual private cloud or private cloud we provide services to customers at each layer in the stack. We realise that it is extremely important not to become too obsessed with precise categorisations and rigid terminologies. What matters is the solution and the problem that it is designed to solve. The diagram below represents a stack of enabling technologies, not the solution itself. The Hosting & Cloud Stack Platform as a Service and Web Hosting We are a long-established PaaS player focusing exclusively on the web hosting marketplace. We don t provide platform development tools for software developers, but we do provide platform services for digital media agencies and other organisations looking for web hosting services. For web hosting, our PaaS capabilities are available either for LAMP Stack Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP web server development or for ASP.NET/SQL Server deployments. The majority of our web hosting customers have multiple web servers per customer on our platform, often needing SSL security for transactions, and sometimes needing extra capacity. We provide a full managed web hosting service specialising in transactional and seasonal websites, with our hybrid cloud providing additional burst capacity and our other hosting and cloud services being used to house back-end databases. Software as a Service Six Degrees Group does not provide traditional SaaS applications like hosted Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Lync or Microsoft SharePoint. We have many partner customers that do deliver these application services to end-users with us providing the enabling tools to allow others to use our colo and/or cloud hosting platforms to build the SaaS offerings. Likewise, Internet-based per user, per month SaaS applications like Salesforce or Microsoft 365 are not our market either. There is an emerging industry term called SaaS Infrastructure where Six Degrees Group is active. We provide virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), archiving, managed backup and disaster recovery services that are purely infrastructure software, not applications software (like email or CRM), designed to enhance our overall Infrastructure as a Service capabilities. Applications Software as a Service Development Tools Database Platform as a Service Operating System Virtualisation Servers Six Degrees Group Storage Network Facilities Infrastructure as a Service
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) The IaaS elements deliver what their name suggests: the enabling technologies for cloud computing, delivered as a service in a pure cloud environment or delivered through remote hands/smart hands support to colo customers using their own equipment. Facilities Layer At the facilities layer, we provide the datacentre facilities, rack space and power required to deliver all the subsequent layers in the stack. We own and operate our own tier 3 and tier 4 datacentres. Network Layer The network layer includes all the internal and external elements needed to build a complete networked platform: firewalls (hardware or appliance-based), load balancers, Internet VPC access and private WAN connectivity. Storage Layer The storage layer provides all the enabling technologies disks, SAN, snapshots, management, etc that is used to store customer data and to build value-adding services like managed backup and other hosting and cloud modules that build up to form a complete solution. Server Layer The server layer provides the compute resources needed to enable the applications and services that are being hosted. For colo and managed cloud service customers, servers are owned by the customer. For all other cloud types we provide the compute services as a Service. Virtualisation VMware is used to allow multiple virtual machines (VMs) to be built on each physical server offering significant scalability, elasticity and resilience advantages. We use VMware s vcloud Director for virtual private and private customers and offer consultancy to cloud managed services customers, and manage their VMs using vsphere. Operating System Layer Once we have built virtual machines for our customer on shared or dedicated servers, we provide them with the operating system of their choice, e.g. Windows or Linux. For colo customers, our systems team can provide support for deployments in our colo racks.
The Power of One Six Degrees Group provides hosting and cloud services that deliver value in all areas of the hosting stack. Our cloud services are powered by our cloud platform which is a geographically diverse dual-zone platform housed in our datacentres. This provides complete and end-to-end control over all elements in the hosting stack allowing us to deliver superb quality and flexibility. Our services deliver value in all areas of the hosting stack: Infrastructure as a Service Platform as a Service Software as a Service We provide hosting services and hybrid packages in the following areas: Colocation Cloud Managed Services Virtual Private Cloud Private Cloud Hybrid Cloud Cloud Portfolio 6DG Single-Tenant Platform 6DG Multi-Tenant Platform Private Cloud Hybrid Cloud Virtual Private Cloud Six Degrees Group On-Premise Cloud Customer Premises Equipment Colocation Services Customer Hosted Equipment Cloud Managed Services
Cloud Computing Benefits Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery A classic cloud driver for people to use hosted compute and storage resources is BC/DR: keeping the organisation running if they cannot access the building or its resources. Cloud hosting operates as either the primary or secondary delivery mechanism, helping to eliminate dependence on on-premise kit or taking over if on-premise services are not available. Overcoming Resource Shortages Managed cloud hosting helps with all resource challenges lack of available systems, real-estate, personnel or expertise by providing companies with dynamic resources available elastically and on-demand, with dedicated experts working as an extension of the customer s IT department. Campaign, Special Event or Seasonality Many organisations, especially in B2C industries like leisure, hospitality, entertainment and retail, run regular one-off campaigns, special events, or have high levels of seasonality in their business model. Managed cloud hosting helps by allowing these companies to turn up resources to cope with increased demand then turn down when the demand passes. Application Upgrades or Performance Issues Organisations do not always upgrade software (e.g. Exchange) to the latest software load immediately, resulting in expensive hardware upgrades. Others are experiencing hardware-related performance issues with applications that are putting a strain on server infrastructure. This is often a driver for migrating to the cloud as it means companies can focus on managing apps and leave the hardware challenge to us. Compliance or Regulatory Challenges Information security is a significant legal, regulatory and compliance challenge. Some industries have best practice guidelines or accreditations that are even more stringent. The cloud offers ways to achieve compliance but also threats for many, they need to work with UK-based managed cloud hosting providers operating ISO27001 compliant datacentres. Require Development or UAT Environment Some of the earliest cloud pioneers were test and dev users and it remains a major driver today. The ability to spin up production quality environments to write code and for User Acceptance Testing with the ability to migrate easily into a live environment for a time-limited amount is a compelling driver for managed cloud hosting. Eliminate Hardware Ownership/Move to Opex Many IT departments now focus on managing applications and users and using managed services to deliver the IaaS enabling components. This may be due to a business focus on core competencies, the desire to move away from hardware upgrade cycles or a financial desire to move to an operating expenditure model with predictable monthly recurring charges replacing capex spikes. Coping with Uncertainty and Change In an unpredictable world, the flexibility of cloud services is appealing to companies that do not know how their organisation is likely to evolve in the future. Moving from 5 year depreciation cycles to annual or even monthly service charges allows companies to scale up or down as their business expands, contracts or changes focus.
Cloud Platform Architecture Six Degrees Group s cloud hosting is delivered on a resilient, geographically diverse, dual-zone multi-tenant platform, all accessed and connected through our backbone network, housed in dedicated datacentre space. Our compute and storage resources are made available to customers in one or both zones as primary resources with managed backup and replication taking place between zones as secondary resources. The cloud architecture is available as multi-tenant resource for compute, storage or both. Our cloud platform has been architected with this sort of flexibility in mind. This deployment model allows us to deliver our 100% SLA for virtual private cloud customers. As we are in full control of all steps in the process, we are not reliant on any single location and there are no single points of failure for management, network, server or storage elements. Six Degrees Group The cloud architecture is available as multi-tenant resource for compute, storage or both.
Cloud Platform Architecture The diagram below is a high-level schematic of the platform. Both zones utilise the same technologies with vcloud Director acting as the overlay management layer. 6DG Backbone Zone 1 Zone 2 Management Management Servers Network Cloud Backup Servers Network Storage Storage Replication Offsite Replication
Cloud Managed Services Private Cloud Architecture Our Cloud Managed Services suite has been designed for customers that want the functionality and benefits of private cloud but utilising their own hardware provisioned in dedicated colocation racks. The rental element of pure cloud solutions is eliminated with capex investment needed for the server and storage equipment but the ongoing managed service ethos is maintained. We provide professional services to design and deploy the solution and ongoing management of the Infrastructure as a Service elements of the delivery. The customer retains responsibility for sourcing the hardware and for managing the application that is hosted. Virt 6DG Backbone Private Cloud Backup & Replication Management Servers Network Storage Hybrid Cloud 6DG Cloud Platform DEDICATED RACK(S) Six Degrees Cloud Managed Services have the following characteristics: The customer owns the physical server equipment 6DG provides colocation space and ongoing support 6DG provides design consultancy for cloud-building The cloud VMs reside on the 6DG vsphere for management The customer is responsible for the application/service that s hosted The customer can access the 6DG Cloud Platform for hybrid cloud Six Degrees Group
We design Virtual Private Cloud solutions to meet the unique needs of each customer. Each deployment is housed on our dual-zone multi-tenant cloud platform. The principles of virtual private cloud (VPC) are similar to our virtual private network (VPN) connectivity solutions. Our VPN customers all share the same MPLS core network. Likewise, our VPC customers share the core cloud platform but their virtual machines are dedicated for their own private use. Our VPC architecture is shown below: Virtual Private Cloud Virtual Private Cloud 6DG Backbone Internet / Private Network Virtual Private Cloud Backup & Replication Firewall Firewall Load Balancer Load Balancer Hybrid Cloud Additional Resources on 6DG Cloud Platform Virtual Machines Storage Our VPC solutions are delivered as a managed cloud service for customers who are looking for managed hosting. This means that we provide the physical hardware that makes up the multi-tenanted platform, capacity planning, 24/7 monitoring and load balancing as part of the service. We also provide high availability configuration, backup and disaster recovery as standard. One of the biggest advantages of our fully managed virtual private cloud service is our 100% SLA. Our dual-zone, geographically diverse architecture means that we have 100% confidence in the up-time of our platform. This, when combined with a 100% uptime SLA on our connectivity portfolio, gives you the confidence that our managed hosting service will match, or better, any in-house system you might develop. One of the biggest advantages of our fully managed virtual private cloud service is our 100% SLA. Our dual-zone, geographically diverse architecture means that we have 100% confidence in the up-time of our platform.
Private Cloud Private Cloud Architecture We understand that many customers want the opex-based and rental-based benefits of virtual private cloud, along with the elasticity and flexibility of cloud technology, but they would prefer not to operate in a multi-tenant environment. This may be due to internal policies, compliance or personal preference; regardless of the motivation, our Private Clouds offer the best of both worlds. Private clouds are architected as a dedicated scaled-down version of our 6DG Cloud Platform. We provide a pre-agreed number of new dedicated physical servers and storage, housed in a dedicated colocation rack (or racks), with a pre-determined number of virtual cloud machines configured on your dedicated hardware. This is delivered as a turnkey private cloud service with the ability to expand the configuration either by expanding your private cloud or through time-limited hybrid cloud configuration. A typical private cloud solution may have, for example, 5 physical servers and 20 virtual machines in a secure rack, which would look like this: Clo 6DG Backbone Private Cloud Backup & Replication Management Servers 6DG Cloud Platform Network Storage Hybrid Cloud DEDICATED RACK(S) Six Degrees Group All of our hosting and cloud services are supported with a suite of additional modules that provide additional functionality and incremental security/backup features to augment your private cloud. Private cloud customers also have the same options as colocation customers, including the provision of cages and secure pods, as well as a flexible range of connectivity offerings to round the end-to-end solution.
Cloud Portfolio A hybrid cloud is a combination of two (or more) clouds. It is not a separate entity per se; rather, it is a term given to multiple clouds working in harmony. Generally speaking, it is used when customers require additional resources (e.g. on-demand expansion) or additional services (e.g. cloud storage). Architecturally, possible hybrid cloud scenarios are shown below. For example, a customer may have an on-premises cloud that connects to a private cloud on either a single-tenant or multitenant platform, possibly for disaster recovery purposes. A different customer may have a private cloud as their main application and web hosting platform but uses a hybrid configuration onto our multi-tenant platform for burst capacity for online campaigns. Hybrid Cloud 6DG Single-Tenant Platform 6DG Multi-Tenant Platform Private Cloud Hybrid Cloud Virtual Private Cloud On-Premise Cloud Colocation Services Cloud Managed Services Customer Premises Equipment Customer Hosted Equipment Hybrid cloud models open up a whole raft of new possibilities. Often, hybrid cloud for storage and backup is the first step on a customer s journey to a broader cloud deployment. Whatever you are looking to achieve with a hosting solution, hybrid offers many new options and deployment models.
Six Degrees Group is a B2B cloud computing service provider. We focus on the needs of medium and large enterprise customers who value service and are looking to host mission-critical applications, information and complex websites. For us, it is not just about compute and storage; the real customer needs are around application migration, service levels, ongoing support and the complete product wrap. For more information visit www.6dg.co.uk Six Degrees Group
For more information Tel 0800 012 8060 Email info@6dg.co.uk www.6dg.co.uk